So basically Leeds United have accepted a bid from Aston Villa for the highly-rated Fabian Delph and have placed on record (via their website) their appreciation for the honourable manner in which the Midlands club have conducted themselves in courting both club and player. Pesky Leeds have resisted approaches from 'other' clubs (the other being us and City no doubt). Would love to know what Ken Bates quantifies as 'honourable' so next time we go in for a Leeds youngster we don't get rejected. We've put quite a bit of wedge their way in recent years. Maybe we've taken things for granted this time and go burnt for it. Probably offered them a cheeky fish tank for the player. But don't fret lads. Bostock is better than Delph.

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Patrick Vieira has been dropped from France squad. The message from coach Raymond Domenech is simply: Sort out your future. Please do Patrick and head straight for the swamp. Still praying he signs for them lot so I can laugh my arse off. Bad news is that Moussa Sissoko has been drafted in as his replacement. No doubt his value will have risen off the back of this and possibly altered one or two other clubs to take a look at the talented youngster. Can we outsource the negotiations and get Comolli on the case? I still reckon Harry and Wenger are playing mind-games (or maybe one of them is) and are trying to out-fox each other into forcing the other one to sign Old Man Pat. Harry forcing Wenger to protect Vieira's scum legacy, Wenger trying to increase the players profile by suggesting he can still do a job in the Prem and make us believe he's worthy of a punt. It's the most stupid transfer 'saga' of the summer.

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Chelsea have come out and publicly stated they are not selling Joe Cole to anyone. More or less confirms genuine interest from us if they're rejecting any potential advancements on the player by stating on their website it's a no-go. Can put this one to bed I reckon. Doubt they would undermine Ancelotti if he's saying the player is staying (which I think he's said in interviews). So for now, Modric remains on the left. Gio by the way (who some of you would like to see given another chance) probably won't get one because (allegedly) the lad has a time-keeping issue and hardly ever turns up for training when he's meant to. ITK that.

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The Darren Bent to Sunderland transfer is now close to completion. It's been close for the past 15 hours or so. Thought I'd let you know because there's not a lot of coverage at the moment on this story about just how close he is to signing. Longest medical ever. It's being prolonged longer than a tantric night in with Sting.

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Klaas Jan-Huntelaar is apparently available on the cheap. £11M-£12M the price being touted. Bad news is AC Milan are apparently back in for him. It was a while back that Levy was apparently talking to Madrid and it seems like a lifetime ago when we were linked to RVN and others, but in that time you'd think there was some form of communication relating to the proflic Dutch star. We must have been interested in one of their players at the very least (I don't quite buy Harry's persistent 'if he's available we're interested comments' relating to Klaas as it's quite obvious the kid is available and has been all summer long). So you'd think we've inquired about the player or possibly even spoken to his representatives, and maybe failed to agree a monthly wage. Unless this is another epically long negotiation where Levy is biding his time. Let's hope there's a moneyshot at the end of it rather than limp embarrassment.